The Dem’s Gov candidate

Mark Lakers, President of Ag and Food Associates a middle market merger and acquisition investment bank in Omaha. Previously of McCarthy and Co and First National Bank.

We are hearing that this is the guy Dems want to challenge Dave Heineman.

Laker’s list of contributions to various Democrat candidates is lengthy (query his name at the FEC site here). $2000 to Jim Esch for Congress. $5,000ish to Obama for Prez. $500 to Nebraska Democrats. (And a grand each to Mike Johanns and Jon Bruning, just to be on the safe side.)

If they can bring him in, he’d be an interesting candidate: Banker. Ag guy. Cash.

Local political experts like UNO Political Science Professor Randy Adkins say it could actually prove beneficial if Democrats are able to find a candidate in the next couple of weeks that comes from a non–political background. He says that is especially true if the person comes from private industry.

“The benefit they have is their own political network of donors, and maybe even their own money,” says Adkins.

If Dems can pull him in, guarantee they will get very excited.

**Update 9:20pm**

You can look at the OWH, LJS and NW stories on this (which all were published MUCH later in the day…cough! cough!), though all say pretty much the exact same things…

Gov. Dave didn't learn to lead by climbing boardroom ladders. The guy knows how to slit throats. The Army taught him to lead. And I mean really lead. Not that self delusional stuff you get from boardroom chair warmers who once read a chapter in Sun Tzu.

So let me get this straight. The Dems are going to run a greedy fat cat banker who is busy running the family farm out of business? Just 'cause he's got some scratch? This has success written all over it.

Mark Lakers was behind the Nebraska Agriculture and Livestock Foundation, a mysterious group whose only role was to bankroll the court challenge to Initiative 300, the Nebraska corporate farm ban that was struck down a couple of years ago. He's also tried twice to force a hostile takeover on a local ag. cooperative.

And that's just the results of 5 minutes of googling.

I dunno if they can even sell this guy to the NDP, let alone the Nebraska voter.

He evidently has some connections to some real money, McCarthy and FNB are big money businesses. He probably has some connections to banks all over the state, and since he himself is a banker he wouldn't scare off the Omaha business leaders. But if he gets in he is still the underdog.

What's this guy going to run on? Extending NE taxpayer funded medicaid to even more illegals? Support for Obamacare 2? Expanding the learning community? Funneling even more taxpayer money to the state employee and teachers unions? Making NE the nation's leader in huge industrial hog farms? No wonder the NE democrats have such a thin bench. They're on the wrong side of the big issues facing the state at all levels.

Now the dems have a sacrificial lamb they will force the Gov to spend some of his $`s on a campaign instead of throwing it all at the NE Leg races. Lathrop, Dubas, Wallman, and the other D senators might sleep better tonight.

I hear there's a report coming out that'll show that Nebraska may be 1 billion dollars in debt. Let's see if there's any outrage over this or if the tea-baggers will just be lapdogs to Heineman and the Republican controlled unicameral just like they were for the Republican controlled federal government of the 00s.

Deficit Dave Heineman is going to be facing the $1 billion budget shortfall (according to the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and Chairwoman of the Revenue Committee) that he created. I wonder if he will try to raid the corn and wheat farmers checkoff funds again to cover for his mismanagement of the state budget.

Democrat campaign consultants must be licking their chops over their earning prospects with this guy. He has zero personality and listening to him speak is the verbal equivalent of watching paint dry. He really distinguished himself right out of the box, by drawing a complete blank when asked about his ideas for spurring job creation in the state which is the supposed hallmark issue of his campaign.

If Lakers had any real business sense he'd wait until 2014 to make his run for Governor. By then Heinny will be safely setting in the Senate, and telling everyone he doesn't know how Governor Sheehy managed to screw things up so bad. He'll claim he had nothing to do with any billion dollar shortfalls, and things ran fine when he was in charge.

I think it's significant that 24 hours after the announcement, the local moonbat site hasn't even acknowledged it. You can tell they're just so excited over there, they can't even sit down to post their joy on the 'net.

No, the "moonbats" are trying to figure out if this guy is just a ploy put up by Nelson to drain Dave's war chest, or if he's the real deal. If he's Nelson's boy, and the fact that Nelson jumped on his bandwagon so quickly indicates that he might be, then he'll find no support from the left wing of the party.

Against Nebraska farmers?? Ha. How about Deficit Dave proposing to drain the farmer corn and wheat checkoff funds during special session? That against farmers. Both the President of the Farm Bureau and Corn Growers Association called Heineman's scheme a "new tax on farmers".

Deficit Dave just can't help himself – keep spending and propose a new tax on farmers to balance the budget.

Anon 2:55. My taxes didn't go up after Special Session, but if it wasn't for Annette Dubas and LaVonne Heidemann stopping the Governor's plan, new taxes would have been imposed on all of Nebraska's farmers.

Maybe if school districts in the Omaha area would stop picking up students in front of their houses and delivering them back to the same, we wouldn't need bloated State Aid to schools!

How about we actually spend the money on the kids and not on gas guzzling school buses? Many times mom or dad stand in the doorway and wave bye-bye.

BTW, between 1970 and 1990 (just a nice sized window for ya') I can honestly say that I remember having a few snow days, but i do not recall a single "heat" day or "cold" day. And, yes, I did have to walk to school for a good chunk of that time period and in HS I was responsible for finding my own ride.

Was it fun walking in the rain? No, but I got my a** there like I was supposed to.

First of all, I don't think Snowplow has an opponent. If not, blame the GOP for that. And the issue in my mind wasn't getting drunk and hitting a snowplow, or the fact that it was the third such incident, it was that she refused a chemical test, in a clear attempt to circumvent the law. Now I know any good DUI lawyer will tell you to refuse the test, but when you're in the business of making laws, seems to me you shouldn't be circumventing them.

And then there are the tens of thousands of dollars she took from Nebraskans United, to maintain a system that discriminates against the vast majority of her constituents.

She's eminently beatable. I'm not sure she's even going to be challenged.

What a chickenshit comment to make!!! I don't like what RWP says so I'm gonna post his bosses phone numbers. Boo Hoo. What a petty, childish, idiotic thing to do.

RWP has never said that he speaks for any UNL dept. He is a private citizen expressing his first amendment rights. If you don't like that go f&^k yourself. And he has tenure so I'm pretty sure he could take a dump on his bosses desk and still not get fired.

The next time BTO wants to complain about people "hiding" behind anonymous or whatever, Anon 1:12 just proves why. People can't win on the arguments so they have to go around and try to make trouble. Today it's the phone numbers of bosses. Tomorrow, customers. The day after that? Who knows? Maybe they come to your house. Anon 1:12, whoever you are, you need help. Either go and get an education and learn how to argue or at least go and get some therapy. Either way, until you are grown up enough to be able to tolerate somebody else's arguments without resorting to threats, go back to China or whatever college campus you just crawled off of and go post somewhere else. Troll.

Well, that's how the Left works. If they can't challenge your argument (and that's usually the case) they'll try to shut you up by other means.

They also can rarely spell my name correctly. 🙂

Pointless to call Jim or Mark; they're both very busy guys and you'll just waste their time. I'd suggest the dean or the chancellor. It'll also be a waste of time, but if you call my chair, he'll just tell you to call the dean or chancellor anyway.

Anon,I understood your point just fine, I felt like being a smartass is all. Its called sarcasm.

To try and get someone in trouble for what their opinion is is asinine. Grow up. Hows the saying go, "I disagree with what you say but will defend with my life your right to say it". I probably just butchered Voltaire but you get the drift.

RWP,Its equally asinine to assume that because one person (presumably a dem) says something all dems feel that way. Google "bush free speech zones". Remember how a lot of your fellow conservatives (notice I didn't say all) lashed out any liberal who dared to criticize Bush because it was "un-American during a war" I remember it, it happened to me. They was as wrong as this anonymous idiot is.

RWP – go ahead and whine about that's how the "left" is. I can give you examples of people I know who have received death treats and attacks on their property because they spoke out as Democrats. Instead of claiming it's only one side that's like that, why not be a real man and admit there are freaks on both sides who go too far.

I also enjoyed the "praise" for Tiny in an earlier post that he "didn't learn to lead by climbing boardroom ladders. The guy knows how to slit throats. The Army taught him to lead. And I mean really lead."

Great image as the bodies pile up at BSDC.

The Gov. is a bully that must have gotten picked on a lot on as little boy and is making up for it now. And most times resort to reminding people that he was the one took down Tom Osborne – so "respect my authority". He is a ruthless politician and campaigner, but a terrible leader. Both don't worry R's this Lakers has no chance, but it's nice to see that someone will be pointing out some of the flawed decisions by Napolean.

Anon 6:25 we're not going after Mr. Lakers on his environmental record, just pointing out the inconsistency of the Democrats trying to be the green party and yet running someone who, were he a Republican, would have the outrage knob turned to 11 against him. The Democrats would be talking about a new Nuremburg trial for this guy for crimes against the environment. And yet, the silence is deafening.

1) He's a banker. People don't like CEOs of banks lately.2) Dave Heineman is hugely popular and has an impeccable conservative record, and this is a conservative state.3) He has no background. Though I'm sure he's rich as hell, he has no name recognition and nothing really to go on, other than he's rich as hell.

I am very glad that some one will be running against deficit Dave. It will be a tough race for Lakers and the democrats to win. I think they realize it. But who ever heard of Senator "GOP" Brown of blue state Massachusetts. Plus if the stories about Heineman gutting state aide to schools is true, then your right it may not be a close race. The democrats would win in a walk.